Sunday Nov 25 |
 | Orienteering 1:44:00 [3] *** 6.9 km (15:04 / km) | |
| spiked:24/25c slept:7.0 (injured) shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Middle Fork Creek KY
Having suspected that I had not referred to my compass yesterday, it was time to prove my me--l(e) with some no-compass work.
Was going say: spiked 22 controls, but after looking at the splits, and seeing that I won two of those legs, I will allow restore all due benefits of spikehood to the controls in question: 15 and 19. My criticisms of the approach to these controls are, respectively, that on 15 I was overly anxious about passing above the ditch and missing the control that I hit the ditch too low (20-30m), and on 19 I took a very long route to the left. In retrospect, and seeing that I won that latter leg by over 20s, I see that my route had the advantage of having no climb whatsoever (and it would have been faster if I had dropped to the trail earlier, rather than trying to hit the control exactly from above, since I had to climb over some downed trees at the end).
Of course, no retrospective rationalization could confer spikehood on control number 22, because I never did find it. It looks like I may have encountered some green dots placed near the control, but at the time I didn't realize it. At some point, I was at the small open area under the first "2" in "22", although I didn't see that on the map at the time. Soon after that, I was off the map, and my no-compass exercise came to an abject end. My mistake was trying to use a pointy-looking spur as an attackpoint, but when I was there, the real spur turned out to be very broad, and I couldn't tell which way it was pointing. |
Saturday Nov 24 |
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| Event: SLOC Turkey O
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| Orienteering 2:30:00 [3] *** | |
| spiked:19/19c slept:9.0 (injured) shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Just finished marking my map when the mass start took off. And I wasn't dressed or warmed up. I decided to visit the nearest 4 controls and then come back to change into O clothes and do some real orienteering. That took 30 minutes. Then I gave myself 2 hours: I decided that instead of trying to compete in the scoreO, I would pick legs that I knew I usually had trouble with. Such legs as going over a flattish ridge to pick out the correct re-entrant system, and moving down a branching spur. Had a fine time in a fine forest on a fine map. Leg was getting sore by the end. |
Friday Nov 23 |
| Jogging 30:00 [1] | |
| slept:5.0 weight:175lbs (injured) shoes: Black/Red Free Xtrain |
| First time joggin in two weeks. One of my favorite runs: on a golf course by the light of a full moon. This golf course was perfectly flat, custom-made for a comeback. |
Wednesday Nov 21 |
| Nordic Track (reading) 1:30:00 [1] | |
| slept:8.0 weight:174lbs (injured) |
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Tuesday Nov 20 |
| Nordic Track (reading) 1:00:00 [1] | |
| (injured) |
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Sunday Nov 18 |
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| Event: OCIN Camp Friedlander
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| Orienteering 1:24:30 [2] *** 6 km (14:05 / km) | |
| spiked:17/17c slept:9.0 weight:174lbs (injured) shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Since I couldn't run, I wanted to do something to make it more interesting. My first idea was to spend the time to #1 memorizing the map, and never looking at it again the rest of the course. On the way to #2, I realized that it was going to be too hard, so I revised the rule to allow looking at the map for any leg except the present leg. This was ok until the long leg 9-10, but that was too easy to memorize, so for that leg I followed the red line exactly (no compass). After #10, my leg felt fine and I orienteered normally a la gimpee. |
| Orienteering (control pickup) 1:00:00 [1] * | |
| spiked:6/6c shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
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Saturday Nov 17 |
| Weightlifting (circuit) 45:00 [2] | |
| rhr:45 slept:8.0 weight:174lbs (injured) |
| 3 min light weights punctuated by 3 min on rower or elliptical..repeated |
| Swimming 15:00 [1] | |
| (injured) |
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| Note | |
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| Leg feeling much better today.. might try jogging tomorrow |
| Orienteering (armchairO) 2:00:00 [0] ** | |
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| Studying RouteGadget for USchamps. What I found: my navigation is pretty good compared to
people who beat me. I just run too slow. On one leg a female ran 92% faster than me. |
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| C • ... 2 |
Friday Nov 16 |
| Swimming 15:00 [1] | |
| (injured) |
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Wednesday Nov 14 |
| Weightlifting (circuit) 15:00 [2] | |
| (injured) |
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| Swimming (breaststroke) 45:00 [1] | |
| (injured) |
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Sunday Nov 11 |
| Orienteering (billy goat) 2:30:00 [1] *** | |
| 13c slept:9.0 weight:174lbs (injured) shoes: Black/Red Free Xtrain |
| All kidding aside, the Buckeye Billy is not the least bit capricious and nowhere near as corny as some of the more famous troll-baits set up in inclinacious parkland across the country: four loops of a city park; said park borrowing on the modern urban idea of up before out. The map: 1:7500 with 5m contours. Temperature around 45F. Dewpoint not far behind. Drizzle. Could only walk. Could only do half. Time to ice my leg. Technical note: Because I could only walk, I made no mistakes, but it was fun to see where mistakes would have been made if were running. |
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| C • Hi, Tom! 3 |
Saturday Nov 10 |
| Running hills 30:00 [3] 4.0 mi (7:30 / mi) | |
| slept:7.0 weight:176lbs (injured) shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Drove Buster to a XC race and saw that they were accepting open entries. Well it took 1/2 hr to sign up (ended up having to join USATF). Immediately, I had to run to the starting line. No warmup. As soon as the race started, I found myself in dead last and getting deader by the minute. For some reason (which I now understand, I couldn't handle the downhills). The first mile split was 6:20. Sometime after that, I didn't notice that the runners in front of me had made a loop in a baseball field. I was just following a white line. When I looked behind me and saw the leaders, I pulled aside and walked to the 2 mile marker. I got a map from a spectator, waited for the end of the line, and map in had finished the course. As soon as I started up, I realized that I was lame in my left foot. No push there, so I had to run flat-footed on one side.
I went home and stuck my foot in ice because I still had to drive 1-1/2 hr to go to.... |
| Orienteering race 1:35:00 [3] *** 6.7 km (14:11 / km) | |
| spiked:10/15c (injured) shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Course set by Matt 'king of pain' Bond.
My mind was still in 1:15000 mode from last weekend. I got to 1 before my mind warmed up. I saw a control and it was mine. I overran #2. The next two looked technical, so I bore down and did well. After #4, I took off running and passed #5 and spent the next 20 minutes going up and down the next re-entrant. It wasn't really an excusable parallel feature error. Did something similar on #8. During the first long leg, my left leg started getting sore, and then during the second long leg, I stepped on something sharp while running fast downhill and the pain shot up my leg. It is always uncomfortable to do that, but it just so happens that the point of impact is the insertion point of my already tender tendon and I think that explains the pain in the whole leng. It was bad enough that I had to limp the rest of the way.
I have been icing the leg all evening. |
Friday Nov 9 |
| Swimming (easy) 15:00 [1] | |
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Thursday Nov 8 |
| Nordic Track (Reading) 30:00 [1] | |
| slept:9.0 weight:175lbs |
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| Running (Easy Fartlek) 40:00 [3] * | |
| shoes: Black/Red Free Xtrain |
| Over the Hills and Dales golf course. |
Tuesday Nov 6 |
| Weightlifting (5x5 circuit) 20:00 [3] | |
| weight:175lbs |
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| Jogging 20:00 [1] | |
| slept:8.0 |
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Sunday Nov 4 |
| Orienteering race (Red Y) 2:01:30 [3] *** 7.4 km (16:25 / km) | |
| spiked:14/16c slept:8.0 shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Flawless navigation through the 7th control. OK start next leg but as soon as I crossed the road, everything looked funny. I overran the 8th control slightly and had to climb back up from the stream. The next leg was supposed to be trivial but I spent half and hour stumbling around the control circle before I finally stubbed my toe on the control post. Everything was OK after that, except that I encountered a sphinx on the way to 14 who gave me the choice of 4 directions at a trail crossroads and I sampled all of them. |
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Day 2 Red Y - Splits |
Saturday Nov 3 |
| Orienteering race (Red Y) 2:18:30 [3] *** 9.2 km (15:03 / km) | |
| spiked:15/16c rhr:45 slept:9.0 shoes: Black and Yellow XC spikes |
| Flawless navigation through first 6 controls. (There was no water at the 4th control despite being so marked on the clue sheet...I think that was the start of my meltdown.) I wasn't paying attention on the way to 7 and went by the control halfway to the next one before I woke. This took any remaining wind from my sails. This is not an idle metaphor, as I felt as I was in a sailboat on a calm water far from land and only the rudder as an oar. I stumbled through the rest of the course. I am not sure why I could do nothing out there: I was never lost, I just couldn't coordinate my feet to move quickly. |
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Day 1 Red Y - Splits |
Friday Nov 2 |
| Orienteering race (Sprint) 21:27 [4] ** 2.7 km (7:57 / km) | |
| spiked:17/18c rhr:40 slept:6.0 shoes: White Waffle Racers |
| Got stuck behind some dark green on the way to 7; this doubled the distance. Drifted too far off the red line on 9 and 10. |
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Sprint Red - Splits |